Laurie David and I: Hollywood parlances meet blue-collar environmentalism

By John F. Borowski
Created Dec 29 2006 - 8:50am

Several weeks ago I was contacted by Laurie David and her surrogates at the
Natural Resources Defense Council regarding the National Science Teachers
Association's (NSTA) refusal to distribute 50,000 free "An Inconvenient
Truth" DVDs on climate change. Lacking fluency in Hollywood environmental
circles led me to ask, "Who is Laurie David?" For years, as a grassroots
activist, I have written about the corporate landslide of dishonest
education materials in our needy public schools. We at the Native Forest
Council here in Eugene, Oregon have tried to engage the "Big Green"
environmental groups to attend NSTA conferences to combat industry's
propaganda machine, or help us fight the battle through funding: on both
accounts, I have failed. A phone call from Laurie David was manna from
heaven: finally, the Big Greens were waking up to the manipulation of
children and reaching out to us "little folks" who fight environmental
battles daily. Seemingly my jubilation was premature and sheepishly I may
have been just a "means to an end."

When asked, grassroots groups do what grassroots group's do: we help,
immediately. When I was first contacted by the Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), I was told that Laurie David was penning a piece for the
Washington Post on the issue we have fought long and hard to expose. The
Post needed egregious examples of industry's most blatant "miseducation"
tools for numbing children to environmental concerns. I shipped out coloring
books from the coal industry showing coal being "cleaned", glossy brochures
from Exxon that would put a happy face on the Valdez catastrophe, and the
American Petroleum Institute's "hip hop" petroleum love-fest. I learned of
Laurie David's dedication to fighting climate change and that she is married
to a Hollywood mogul. She has access to the public's eye we could have never
imagined. Her "high profile" account of the NSTA's colossal error to
distribute Al Gore's revolutionary tale of impending climate havoc would
literally blow the lid of this critical expose of industry's quest to teach
children lies. While never made privy to the private conversations between
NSTA's Executive Director Gerald Wheeler and Ms. David, my job was to
provide the NRDC and Ms. David with as much historical information I had
collected over the last ten years.

A promising phone call and a sour email

The Washington Post piece was published on 12/2/06 and I followed up the
next day with my own take on the issue in Commondreams.org and Truthout.org
with a follow-up piece on 12/13/06 in Truthout.org. Grassroots' activists
depend on two conduits to environmental successes: getting the word out and
inspiring "common folks" to join the fray. The outpouring of emails from
angered teachers and dismayed parents jamming my computer has been
breathtaking. Hundreds of individuals emailed Gerald Wheeler imploring and
chiding him to sever his ties with ExxonMobil, Shell Oil, Weyerhaeuser and
Monsanto. Requests for curriculum ideas and lasting words of encouragement
have kept me up for hours each night: a Grassroots' response means a
personal letter with a gracious words of thanks and "if you need any help
let me know" protocol.

Having received numerous follow-up letters meant the story was now a wild
fire and we at the Native Forest Council could raise the money to attend the
NSTA's conference in March 2007 in St. Louis. Ms. David's stature and high
profile piece in the Post graciously included references to our efforts and
seemingly was bringing years of toil to expose dishonest corporate
curriculum to fruition.

Not only was the story getting covered in papers, blogs and websites across
the country, I had a commitment to attend the NSTA from a new and unlikely
friend. Early in this whole drama, Laurie David called my home. She spoke
passionately of fighting the NSTA's ties to those who actually downplay
climate change like ExxonMobil and heaped praise on my efforts over the
years. Using terms like "hero" she referred to the importance of my work.
The call culminated with her promise of a "date" at the NSTA conference in
St. Louis and I told her that I would be honored. Finally, the Big Green
machine would ride shotgun with grassroots activists who fight day in and
day out. I could engage the 12,000 plus teachers who will attend the St.
Louis conference and supply them with the truth about corporate lesson plans
but more importantly provide them with curriculum ideas about climate
change. My wife, Trish, told me that she admired my preference to "stay on
the sidelines," but urged me to take a more visible role. My role, I
explained was to get climate change materials into the hands of millions of
students and I neither wanted my name in lights or acclaim. I wrote emails
to the NRDC and Ms. David outlining what we would need to make a splash at
the NSTA conference. An abrupt and coldly worded email from Laurie David
ended our "foray" to the NSTA without explanation yet, it was unambiguously
clear:

"John I have been as open and clear as possible...I am not interested in
sending you to the convention or supporting it in any way."

For the record, I asked for $10,000-15,000 to attend the NSTA convention.
Mind you, a 10' by 10' space (you must rent everything: from chairs to table
covers) alone is several thousand dollars. What we lacked in economic
prowess would be overcome by the current blitz of publicity and the
boundless energy we would bring to this convention. Right in the belly of
the beast amongst Weyerhaeuser and Monsanto mega-displays we could provide a
simple truth: you cannot deny climate change science and by all means, we
are not going to allow you to lie to our students and go unchallenged. With
the backing of Ms. David and the NRDC, we imagined that "common folks" who
read the story would be compelled to act. And act they have: we have
received offers for free housing in St. Louis and promises of small checks.
Yet, we find ourselves in a quandary, unless those small checks come in by
the hundreds, some would let this story fade. In March the purveyors of
dubious curriculum will peddle their "Madison Avenue style lessons" as
teachers fill their bags with industries' freebies and bring them back to
implement as "science" back at their schools. Some times numbers put issues
into perspective. A $15,000 request from the NRDC is a pittance. Their
operating budget for FY 2005 was over $65 million! To spearhead this trip
would cost a mere 0.025%% of their war chest. Spokespeople for Ms. David told
me that the NSTA story was over and it was time to move on to "bigger
issues." How could the education of 55 million students be a "done story"
and with millions of those students at or near the cusp of voting age, this
is the most influential generation of decision makers that will or will not
prevent a climate change tipping point. Simply put, if Laurie David had a
change of heart: why not just say so? There is an old east coast practice:
don't think too much about the "possibilities" if so, you might hex
yourself. Some old beliefs die-hard and I can't say I wasn't hurt by Ms.
David's email.

Did I fail the "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me you"
rule?

Raised in a blue-collar town in New Jersey, minutes away from the bowels of
the most industrialized stretch of earth on the planet, I was ingratiated
into the rules of life by simple and loving people. I was taught the
cardinal rule of reaching out where you never use the mantra, "you owe me."
You do for people, because it is the right thing to do. Grassroots
environmentalists are akin to the blue-collar types I worked with as a young
man doing ironwork. They give without hesitation and prefer the "support
role" rather than the limelight.

With a young family in tow, we moved to Oregon (1990) quickly finding
ourselves immersed in the Ancient Forest battles. Here I learned the
dichotomy and hierarchy between grassroots and the established Big Greens
like the Audubon Society or the National Wildlife Federation. I testified in
the United States Senate on behalf of protecting Opal Creek, a magnificent
old growth forest that purifies Salem Oregon's water and is one of the few,
protected success stories in the battle to rescue forests in the Pacific
Northwest. My ticket to Washington D.C., cost over $900, and no Big Green
organization would help offset the cost, but my wife gave me the okay to pay
with "plastic." Thank goodness a local activist dipped into his bank account
so I could tell my story in front of the Senate. I befriended a forest
activist named Michael Donnelly and he summed up for me the strange divide
between Big Greens and the grassroots:

"My best first-hand experience of it all as former VP of the ONRC (Oregon
Natural Resources Council) was when we tried for years to get the Big Greens
to help with the plight of Northwest ancient forests. They told us, Owe
would like to help, but, it is a regional issue; not a national one.' So, we
increased our efforts and worked to nationalize the issue. Once we did that,
around 1988, the Big Greens showed up in force. What we got was: getting
rudely pushed aside and then surrender of the famous Injunction (Judge
Dwyer's ruling to protect millions of acres of Spotted Owl habitat) that had
stopped ancient forest logging. In a complete capitulation to President
Clinton, the Big Greens sat back as political compromise called Option 9
resumed logging: 40 %% of the protected native, old growth forests. The Big
Greens called that Oour greatest victory.' Maybe for them anyway-for fund
raising potential and for applying a slick coat of green wash for the
Clinton/Gore Administration."

You see, once before, a phone call said one thing and meant another. The
National Audubon has been bamboozled by corporate education. They endorse
Project Learning Tree, funded by their pimp daddy organization, the American
Forest Foundation (a list of the worst clearcutters on earth). Not content
with their forest education by omission (ignore lessons on clearcuts, the
fragmentation of habitat, short rotation forestry) PLT would later conspire
with the American Petroleum Institute. And teach what you ask: they would
teach the merits of petroleum based products and simply ignore any
substantive discussions on climate change.

I joined an email Chat group back in January 2001. Hoping to engage Audubon
members to speak out against corporate curriculum, I struck pay dirt on
1/8/02. John Biachi, Director of Communications for Audubon, read an email
about Audubon's aiding and abetting of the timber industry's agenda and
posted a simple email:

"Audubon does not support Project Learning Tree. I'm not sure why there has
been multiple postings to the contrary, but they're wrong. Audubon does not
endorse PLT. We recommend against its use in Audubon Centers." --John
Bianchi

Besieged by angry emails and embarrassed by the truth, Bianchi went into
denial mode and even ignored his own posting. I called him in New York City
and he told me that he knew of PLT's big timber tendencies, yet, he could
not alienate paying Audubon members who supported PLT? For some reason, I
became the pariah as if I had spoken for Bianchi. Audubon refuses to remove
PLT from its list of "credible environmental curriculum" and endorses PLT's
energy module with climate deniers such as the American Petroleum Institute.
As for John Bianchi, he denies that he had that conversation with me. Once
again, phone conversations that said one thing, apparently mean something
else in this new world of "environmental organizational semantics." I
confessed to the Executive Director of the Native Forest Council Tim
Hermach, that I had been duped again. He asked if I would stop helping
people, like Laurie David and I simply stated, "No."

"At some point you must realize that the grassroots need the help of folks
like you. I appreciate the work the NSTA issue..." (My final response to Ms.
David's email)

Am I mad at Laurie David? I would say, now in retrospect, I am more sad than
mad. Her organization is trying to get the "Inconvenient Truth" DVD to
teachers. Teachers can apply for a free copy at: jenjill@peak.org [1]. He
thanks citizens nationwide for writin the NSTA. The Native Forest Council
will try to attend the NSTA conference in March 2007.
_______

About author John F. Borowski is a science teacher of 26 years; his pieces
have appeared in the New York Times, UTNE Reader, Counterpunch, Commondreams
and many other sites. He can be contacted at jenjill@peak.org [2].

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson